The Fortune Magazine Channels the Onion. Is SNL in the Future of Fortune?
July 31, 2018
Perhaps ola is a good way to approach this Fortune Magazine story. Now the story is satire. Satire triggers in my mind thoughts of the Onion online service, now owned by Univision. I want to mention that Univision is trying to sell the Onion. Maybe the phrase I want is Hasta la vista?
I read “Man Terrified of Palantir, More Terrified to Explain What Palantir Is,” a write up labeled in small light blue type as “Humor. Satire from Fortune.” Yep, a million laughs.
The problem is that the write up is not particularly humorous. If the reader does not pay attention to Palantir Technologies and how it uses the Amazon Web Services platform, the article makes no sense. Therefore, the laughter quotient is small. In the calculus of humor, I would suggest that there is an infinitesimal chuckle in the story.
If one is familiar with Gotham, Metropolitan, the use cases for the software, the write up may be interpreted as an accurate “real” news story.
For me, I think Fortune has another agenda. My hunch is that Fortune wants to do a Buzzfeed dive bombing of the company. Perhaps the story ended up on a dull spike in the humming editorial hive of the magazine.
Here’s a passage I noted:
As Watts described his style of news consumption, it became clear how one man can be so fearful of a company without understanding its purpose.
With Fortune’s “real” story on ICE, I think this statement applies to much of the coverage of Palantir Technologies.
Yep, real news is satire, not fake news. Why not chase down a non fake, non humorless story about the company? Why not explain what the Gotham wheel menu provides a user? I like the wheel menu. Real news about a “wheel” subject.
Stephen E Arnold, July 31, 2018
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